Anselm Kiefer's Céline-Inspired Installation at Copenhagen Contemporary

Anselm Kiefer, born in Germany in 1945 and one of the most important living artists, has created a new work inspired by Louis-Ferdinand Céline's famous novel "Voyage au bout de la nuit" (Journey to the End of the Night), published in France in 1932. The installation will be on display from April 1 at Copenhagen Contemporary, a non-profit space founded in 2015, which since August has occupied the "paper hall" on Paper Island in Copenhagen's port—3400 square meters of industrial space dedicated to exhibitions, events, and performances until the end of 2017. Kiefer's installation comprises four paintings and four lead sculptures shaped like airplanes, dominating approximately 1500 square meters. The paintings incorporate references to photographs taken by the artist during his 1993 travels in the Gobi Desert, as well as to Ingeborg Bachmann's "Book of Franza" (1955), where the Austrian writer seeks solace in the desert's sterility. Kiefer's choice to reference Céline's grotesque depiction of war's evils and its misanthropic, nihilistic vision is deliberate in light of current political events. Céline, whose real name was Louis-Ferdinand Destouches, is both celebrated for revolutionizing contemporary writing and condemned for his collaboration with the Vichy regime and antisemitic positions. The novel follows the alter ego Ferdinand Bardamu through colonial Africa and a degraded Paris.